Tuesday, October 1, 2013

My degree is in computer science from a (at least at the time) top-20 school in the nation for that discipline. I went into government service knowing that, while I would never achieve the salary I could on the outside, it would at least be countered by job stability. These last couple of years have been a trying time. Government employees have been made out to be overpaid devils with pay freezes and furloughs, but at least there were always last minute deals that came through to keep things chugging. It has gradually been chipping away at that feeling of stability though, and today is the last straw in that arena. I made a promise that if a shutdown actually occurred, I would prep my resume and at least start looking around for other opportunities. It is now time to put my money where my mouth is, so this evening I will start writing that up.

I love the job I am doing right now, and I have a great group of coworkers, but at this point, I feel I must at least look around to see what other opportunities exist rather than just chugging along as a pawn of Congress. Will I leave? I say the odds are still low at this point (I guess I am a masochist), but I need to know what is out there, and I am not alone in this feeling.

The government keeps harping on how we need to hire and retain the best and brightest, but really it is headed down a path of only keeping those happy to suck down a paycheck while taking up space, and those with impostor syndrome. I place the blame for this shutdown squarely on the Republican party, my party, because they wouldn't even pass a continuing resolution without throwing poison pills in there. I have little hope of what will happen when it comes time for the debt ceiling debate in just a couple of weeks.

I am going to take a co-workers advice and once my resume is together, I will attach it along with a letter explaining my displeasure to my representative in the house, Andy Harris. I will also be sending a link to those post to him via Twitter. Congress needs to know that their actions have consequences that affect their constituents and their own ability to get re-elected. There actions also greatly impact our ability as a nation to hire and retain strong talent which will only lead to further erosion of the view of our nations ability to serve its citizens as our quality of employees would decline.

I guess this was weighing on my mind enough while I slept that I work up in the middle of the night to find out if a shutdown was happening and then motivated me to write this blog post. So, thanks Congress for making me sleep deprived.